Outside the Dorm, Monday Afternoon

[thebeastofhouston]

Arabella was returning from her science class when an exhausted deliveryman stopped her just outside the dorm. "Arabella Baylor?"

"Yeeees?" she asked.

"Sign here, please."

Care package? But she'd just gotten back from Houston...Arabella scribbled down her signature and waited to be handed a box or something, but the guy just said, "Have fun with it," and walked away.

It was then that Arabella noticed the twelve foot skeleton standing on the lawn.

"What the--hey, I didn't order this!" The guy ignored her. "How did you get this thing up all those stairs?" Still no answer. Arabella stared up at the skeleton. The skeleton...stared off into the distance, several feet above her head. "What the heck am I supposed to do with you?"

((Open to all who would like to boggle at Arabella's new friend!))

Comments

[white_oleander]

...yeah, Astrid had been going to this school long enough that something like this would give her an almost worried pause.

And doing the quick math to figure out how many days there were until November 1st.

And then realizing, like an afterthought, that that was how many days until her birthday, and, looking at a twelve foot tall skeleton in front of the dorms, half wondering if she'd even make it to see it.

And then, she just sort of shook her head, and reasoned with herself that at least it wasn't a thirty foot tall skeleton, and she looked over at Arabella and figured, by the confused look on the other girl's face, that there wasn't going to be a whole lot of answers there either.

[sparkinyou]

"Hey Arabella," Miles said as he was approaching the dorm and then spotted the twelve foot skeleton standing there. "Oh. Hey. That's new."

[thebeastofhouston]

"Did you order a lawn ornament?" Arabella asked hopefully.

[thebeastofhouston]

"Some guy just dropped it off," Arabella said, still wondering how he'd gotten it up the stairs. "Apparently it's mine."

[white_oleander]

"I did not," Astrid confirmed, glancing over at the skeleton with a tilt of her head again before looking back at Arabella. "At least I don't remember ordering one, but I'm sure it'll be fine as long as it stays a lawn ornament."

And those were now things she apparently said that seemed like normal parts of a conversation.

[thebeastofhouston]

"...I hadn't even thought about that," Arabella admitted.

"Maybe it wouldn't be able to move anywhere because of the base?"

[sparkinyou]

"Well it certainly makes a statement," Miles chuckled. "What are you going to do with it? It's a little tall to go in your room."

[thebeastofhouston]

"Haven't figured that out yet," Arabella admitted. "Got any ideas?"

[sparkinyou]

"We could put it on the roof," Miles suggested. "Maybe at the edge and that way it might scare off some gremlins?"

[white_oleander]

Astrid envied the fact that Arabella hadn't even thought of that, and her faint smile seemed to say as much, but she could be forgiven for being a newer student.

"I wonder if we should get some ropes," Astrid mused, "just to be extra safe."

[thebeastofhouston]

"Like a creepy scarecrow?" Hmmm. "What if it falls off, though?"

[thebeastofhouston]

To be fair, a fairly two-bit animator could have done it, but Arabella wasn't used to thinking about that sort of thing as something that could just...randomly happen.

"Maybe?" she said. "Maybe it's friendly!" It was a plastic skeleton.

[sparkinyou]

"Well, We can tie it down to the roof," Miles suggested, looking up at the dorm. "I have some stuff that would allow me to drag it up there at least. Probably get some rope or cable to tie it down up there."

[white_oleander]

Astrid just sort of looked at the very plastic skeleton skeptically, pushing down every impulse inside of her to answer that with a cryptic and pointed for now.

But she was also here for The Fish, so that thought was quickly followed by a reminder that tying the skeleton down was a good way to sway it away from friendly if that's the spot it was in.

"I guess we'll just sort of have to keep an eye on it," she said, looking up toward the second floor, wondering just whose room it was that the top of the skeleton would be closest to.

[thebeastofhouston]

"...I should turn it around so it's pointed away from the dorm, at least," Arabella realized. If nothing else, whoever that was would probably not appreciate this thing staring in at them.

And she didn't even know the eyeballs lit up yet!

[white_oleander]

Oh, this thing was just full of surprises, wasn't it.

"I'll help," Astrid offered, "if you need it. But, yeah, it'll probably be happier looking out at the island than at the wall of the dorms..."

Because now, with The Fish in mind, her attention seemed to shift toward wanting to just appease the skeleton. Make it...comfortable. Happy, even.

"Do you think it'll want anything else? There's plenty of candy. Maybe some music?"

[thebeastofhouston]

"What if it comes to life like that girl from my French class was worried about and it's tied to the roof? That seems...bad."

[sparkinyou]

"Wait. That can happen?" Miles asked.

He frowned. And then because there's that "just in case" concern he pulled back his sleeve on his hoodie and aimed his web shooter at the skeleton effectively binding the feet and arms of the skeleton.

"Then we need to get a lot of rope."

[thebeastofhouston]

"Oh, yeah, we should get some mood music for Halloween..."

Arabella had just had a brilliant idea. "We should throw a party! Not...for the skeleton." Maybe sort of for the skeleton. "But, I mean, it can be there. As decoration."

[thebeastofhouston]

Okay, the web thing Arabella had not seen before.

After a moment she recovered from her surprise and said, "A decent animator could do it. It would be rude because it would ruin my cool new skeleton, but, I mean, they could, so I see no reason the island's magic couldn't randomly do something similar. But it's already bolted to the base so maybe it can't, like...go anywhere?" Maybe?

[sparkinyou]

"And when you say animator, I'm assuming you mean someone who doesn't sit at a computer all day drawing cartoons," Miles said raising an eyebrow. "And okay. It's bolted. And there's no wrench nearby so I'm guessing that's okay. Unless it's a strong skeleton and-"

Miles shook his head. "Nope. Can't even think about that. I'm just trying to make things worse that the island will probably throw at us later."

[thebeastofhouston]

"Different kind of animator," Arabella confirmed.

"I mean, it's plastic. How bad could it beeeee...okay forget I said that last part."

[sparkinyou]

“Yeeeeeeah,” Miles said with a chuckle. “Well if it does cause any problems we at least have a ton of people around who could probably handle it. Maybe the best thing to do is keep it in a place that is contained? Hey! You think the police will lock it up until after Halloween?”

[toottootmagicflute]

Wei Wuxian put his hand on his flute out of instinct when he spotted the skeleton, but he realized immediately that it had never been alive, so he relaxed his grip and gave the skeleton a puzzled look. "What is that?" he asked. "What is it made of? And... why?"

[thebeastofhouston]

"...do they have a cell tall enough?"

[thebeastofhouston]

"What, you never saw a giant plastic skeleton before?" Arabella teased. "I don't know what it's for. I mean, I assume it's a Halloween decoration but I have no idea why it showed up. Shipping error?"

[toottootmagicflute]

Wei Wuxian was still puzzled. "Is it common to use bones as decoration?" he asked. "You make artificial corpses? Are you trying to attract fierce ghosts?" He wasn't judging her. There wasn't any resentful energy clinging to this thing. He just didn't understand.

[thebeastofhouston]

"I think the idea is actually to scare the ghosts away or something." Arabella had never paid much attention to the deeper underpinnings of Halloween beyond, 'wear costume, get candy, ooh spooky,' "It's for Halloween? It's a holiday at the end of the month."

[toottootmagicflute]

"Real bones don't scare away ghosts, so I don't see why fake ones would," Wei Wuxian said with confidence. "There's a holiday celebrating the dead?"

[thebeastofhouston]

"I mean, I'm just sort of guessing, I don't know all the particulars of Halloween," Arabella admitted. "There are costumes and candy and it's fun."

[white_oleander]

"Is it weird that I actually kind of want to throw a party for the skeleton now?" Astrid admitted, after a moment.

That did seem a pretty good way to win its favor in the case that it ended up turning to life and possibly trying to seek revenge on those who wrong it by trapping them in a forest and tormenting them with bad memories.

"A party's a great idea, though," she then grinned at Arabella a little, "either way."

[sparkinyou]

“They could lie it on its side? Maybe?”

[toottootmagicflute]

"Is that what all the candy is for?" Wei Wuxian asked. "What kind of costumes do people wear?"